#FoodiePenPals

Goodie bag time!!  Last month I learned about a fun blogger pen pal situation that has been going on.  Why had I not been informed?!  Doesn’t the entire food blog world know how much I love a good foodie loot exchange?

It’s been a long time since I have had the chance to do an exchange with someone so I jumped at the chance to join in to this project arranged by Lindsay the lovely Lean Green Bean.

She has almost 400 people participating now!  With so many people involved she has decided to keep everyone matched with someone within their own country, so I was matched with two other Canadians…hilariously enough, both live pretty much in my back yard.

The partner I was given to send a package to is Tamara at You. Naturally. who lives just one island over from me.  And the gal who received me as their package recipient lives just down the country road from my boyfriend.  Remember when I lived in Metchosin a few years back?  Well, Gwen from Sweet Art Supplies can probably see my old house from her place.

So Gwen and I decided to save her the postage and met for coffee last weekend so we could have a little chit-chat and she could send me home with my #FoodiePenPals package.  I held on to the bag all weekend then happily tore into it Monday morning for a fun way to start off my week.

Clearly we are kindred cooking spirits!  I wonder if Gwen noticed how often I include paprika as a spice in my recipes?  It’s one of my faves and having a nice one on hand will be a real treat!  And who doesn’t want good vanilla in their baking cupboard?  I know I do.  Maybe now I’ll finally make vanilla cupcakes!

Just last weekend I began coaxing Michael into breaking out the BBQ grill now that sunny weather is trying to make an appearance around here.  I look forward to finding out if this seasoning mix will be the answer to my burger making prayers.

Did you see the cute note and magnet set above too?  Even with two computers and an iPhone at my disposal I’m still a hand written note and recipe girl most of the time so I know that set will be put to good use in no time.

Thanks Gwen!  I will indeed enjoy all of the goodies you picked out.  Yum!

Any of you baking enthusiasts should head over and check out Sweet Art Supplies.  She carries a huge variety of cute, hard to find baking supplies, designer cupcake liners, sprinkles, sugar and more.  Also make sure you pop on over to Tamara’s blog today to see what I sent her.  I had lots of fun shopping…she made it a challenge with her vegan and gluten-free eating! :) 

Thanks again to Lindsay for tackling such a huge project and to all of the other #FoodiePenPals keeping things fun for everyone. *high five*

Headache Inspired

** Awesome friend alert!  My favourite frequent border crosser, Ibby, brought me back a surprise from Trader Joe’s.  Cooooookie Butter! It’s as delicious as everyone says.

I provided him with a pan of Maple Bacon Sticky Buns as thanks.

Which reminds me…I posted those AMAZING bacon buns yesterday and I only got ONE comment.  Shocked!  I thought you guys would be drooling all over those.

** This morning I made the sad mistake of ordering a Starbucks muffin.  It was mediocre at best and barely the size of my palm.  Then when I looked it up it turned out to be a 400 calorie muffin.  400!!  How is that even a reasonable item to sell?  #@$%^&*!!!

** Tomorrow is #FoodiePenPals reveal day.  Check back here to see my fun foodie goodie bag.

** There was big plans on my workout schedule to finally try BodyPump tonight but I was thwarted by a weird, out of nowhere headache.  First I had a wave of light headedness, then kind of a wibbly eye thing that wouldn’t go away…so I relegated myself to the couch for a few hours and now seem to be fine.

** Gorgeous big pink grapefruits were on sale this week.  I bought a bag and spent three days trying to think of something creative to do with them.  Today I had a brilliant brainstorm.  Eat them!  :)

** I have missed a couple of weeks of #CanadianBloggerSeries shout outs.  Oooops!  Take a click on over to Heidi’s blog to check out posts by:

• Karen from Toronto Girl West (British Columbia)
• Cynthia from Cynthia’s Adventures (New Brunswick & Toronto)
• Leigh from All You Need is Love (Alberta)

It’s so fun reading everyone’s different views of their place in Canada!

** Oh, I suppose I should mention The Hunger Games.  I was lucky enough to get a pair of passes to the advanced premiere of the movie so the other Jamie and I checked it out.  It’s definitely worth the hype.  Very well done.  I think I was at a bit of a disadvantage having just finished the book three days prior so I was picking apart the details and timeline a bit, but overall they did a good job converting the book to the screen.

I’m wondering if anyone who has not read the book has seen the movie yet?  And if you have, were you able to follow the story just fine?  I felt like you needed to know a fair bit from the book for the movie to make complete sense.  Or was that just because the book was so fresh in my mind?

I’m now [not so] patiently waiting on my friend’s boyfriend to finish reading book two so I can have it. 

** I finally gave in a got Draw Something Free for my iPhone tonight.  I’ve played like 15 hands and I’m terrible.  But I’ve had to draw fire twice so I guess that’s my current forte.  You can find me on there as bi0nicw0man if you want to test my mad finger drawing skillz.  I’d like to earn some new colours!

I just spent like 18 minutes trying to figure out how people screen capture things on their iPhones to post to their blogs and such and couldn’t do it. 

Help me!

Thursday Things

Hellooooo everyone.  How has your week been going?  Things have been pretty quiet around here…just taking care of my back and trying to keep on top of the dishes!

Lots of fun things are going down in bloggie town right now…

• My guest post highlighting my Victoria Dine Around experience at The Bengal Lounge went up over at Victorian Food today.  Pop over and check it out!

• I have joined the Foodie Penpal movement being hosted by Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean.  I read about it on Elizabeth’s blog and decided to get in on the action.  Hilariously, both of the penpals I’ve been set up with are from right here…one from Victoria and one from Salt Spring Island!
• Another fun post has gone up for our #CanadianBloggerSeries over on Heidi’s blog.  This time it’s from Stephanie at Fit Mom in Training and she shines a lovely light on Manitoba!

Other fun things…

• The other day I got a rather mediocre Chai Tea Latte at Teaopia.  It was lukewarm and I couldn’t drink it so I brought it home and put it in the fridge.  Thanks to a smartypants idea from a friend I turned it into oatmeal this morning.  So yum!
• I already mentioned this on Facebook, but the most recent instalment of My Drunk Kitchen is about MRE’s and reminded me of the time Arron and I had an IMP tasting party! 

• Remember that awesome KitchenAid food processor I got with my Airmiles?  I’m thinking about selling it.  Turns out it is WAY bigger than I need.  I’m like Goldilocks.  My first one was too small, this one is too big.  Apparently I am in need of one that is jussssst riiiiight. 
• The grocery list for Bacon Cinnamon Roll ingredients is on my iPhone and ready to rock.  Excited much?!

Happy Thursday everyone!